Rembrandt and Van Gogh are names familiar to every reader and every visitor of museums, and both of them are usually considered prime examples of Dutch painting. In every history of Dutch art substantial and deserved attention is given to their paintings; sometimes even beyond the point of being reasonable. By far the most expensive study in art history was the “Rembrandt Research Project,” which tried to establish once and for all the exact size and boundaries of Rembrandt's oeuvre. The project was so big, that it was said it could be seen from the moon. However, it failed to achieve its aim: art historians continue to quibble over Rembrandt. A former director of the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum used to say that every Dutch student of art history should write his or her doctoral thesis on Rembrandt (although he failed to do so himself ). A considerable amount of money is spent on researching Van Gogh's legacy as well. In the most ambitious project ever initiated by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam – the museum which boasts the most visitors of all Dutch museums – more than fifteen years of research have recently been invested in newly publishing the complete correspondence of Vincent Van Gogh, including images of all the works mentioned in the letters.

Both painters are worldwide known to be “Dutch artists”. That the Dutch public proudly considers them to be Dutch as well, was illustrated when in a public poll in 2004 television viewers were invited to elect “The Greatest Dutchman of all Time,” and Rembrandt and Van Gogh both ended in the top 10. Interestingly though, both artists were an exception rather than exemplary when compared to other Dutch painters of their time, which could raise questions as to the nature of their “Dutch” character.

Rembrandt: A Dutch National Artist?

Dutch history is rich in many very good painters, and the history of the geographically broader defined “Low Countries” even more so. However, Rembrandt (1606-1669) was just “one of the boys,” both in his own time and later on in the eighteenth century when Dutch paintings attracted the attention of foreign collectors.